


with all the powers of grayskull

by heartsinhay



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 15:49:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16977486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsinhay/pseuds/heartsinhay
Summary: The one who gets the sword is the one who has to use it. Five people who never became She-Ra, and one who never wanted to.





	with all the powers of grayskull

_ Glimmer _

When Gilmmer sees the sword, the legendary words every Bright Moon kid knows by heart echo in her head. She’s too old to play She-Ra on summer afternoons anymore, not that her mom’s noticed. Her dreams of She-Ra have been put away in favor of a twenty-step plan to defeat the Horde, but for just one moment the sight of the crystal’s glow fills her with a strange, wild hope.

“For the honor of Grayskull,” she whispers, feeling a little stupid as she says it, and then her head falls back and she sees eternity.

An endless expanse of stars in the sky with no ground. A sphere, floating in the darkness, and it looks too small to be the whole world but somehow Glimmer knows it is. A line of blonde warriors, stretching back into history. And a woman made out of light and shadow, wailing a lament of  _ Adora, Adora _ into the void.

“Who’s Adora?” Glimmer calls, but the vision ends and only Bow responds.

“Forget Ado-whatsit. Glimmer, you’re… tall!”

Glimmer looks down at herself, much further down that she’s usually used to looking, and screams. The sword’s still in her hand, and as she stumbles back in panic it lets out a bolt of pure energy, cutting a tree branch completely in half.

“Hey! Watch where you’re pointing that thing!”

“Bow, just— get me a mirror.”

She knows he’ll have one. Nobody keeps his hair that perfect without carrying a mirror around. Glimmer feels different, strange somehow, but she won’t believe anything without proof.

Bow holds up a compact, and Glimmer looks. Long, flowing hair. Tiara framing her face. And that emblem on her shirt, exactly like the illustrations…

“I’m She-Ra,” she says to herself, letting the words sink in, “Bow! I’m She-Ra! This is going to change everything. The other princesses have to join the Alliance again now that we have She-Ra on our side. Wait, I’m a legendary hero. I have superpowers! We might not even need a new Princess Alliance if I can take down the Horde by myself!”

She points the sword again, this time on purpose, and focuses like she does when she uses her regular powers. Another beam of energy comes out, this time powerful enough to cut through a boulder and keep going. Laughing, she picks Bow up (he feels so light and so small!) and spins him around until she has the worst, most horrible realization in the world.

“Oh, no. We can’t tell anyone I’m the one who’s She-Ra now.”

“Why not?” asks Bow, his feet dangling off the ground. Glimmer sets him gently down and then begins to pace in earnest, her mind buzzing and her hands clutched her newly lengthened hair in her fists.

“She wouldn’t let us do anything. She’d lock me in my room forever, she’d confiscate the sword— Bow, we have to keep this a secret. Mom can never know.”

 

_ Mermista _

The stupidest part is that she has a kingdom already, she has powers, she’s already a freaking princess, and just because she makes Parliament do the actual governing part doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any actual responsibilities.

But no, she who gets the sword has to use the sword, and that means Mermista has to leave a nice palace in a kingdom that needs her to go fight in a stupid war. Her bed is the floor now, because they camp all the time. The closest thing they ever have to chai is room-temperature juice scavenged from destroyed Horde cafeterias, and it tastes, like, super gross.

But the worst part is… That’s what she doesn’t let herself complain about, because complaining about it means she’ll have to think about it, and she really, really doesn’t want to. The worst part is the war, the hurting and killing, the blood on her hands that won’t wash away. 

Mermista isn’t naive. Her people live with death lapping at their shores. They send out ship after ship with the knowledge that it is never certain if they will return. She knows what it means to throw a soldier into a wall and hear their bones crack with the impact. She knows that every fight she wins means there are people who will never get to go home.

She hates it, but she can’t stop. She has to keep the Horde running scared, keep them from knocking at the Sea Gate again, keep their energies concentrated far away from Mermista’s home. This isn’t a war she wants to fight, but it’s one she has to end.

Her sword slams into the wall at just the right angle, and the water trapped in the pipes begins to spill down onto the floor. The Horde soldiers in the hall try to rush her, but she isn’t concerned. All she has to do is hold them off until the room begins to flood.

It’s strange, how much becoming She-Ra improved her own powers. Everything’s amplified now, from her strength to her control. Before, her power was a merely a wave, crashing over everything in her path. Now, she is the sea itself.

She can raise liquid pressure until it cracks armor and the bone beneath. She can force water through the gaps between helmet and skin, into lungs, hold it in their throats until they choke. She can, she will, fight without faltering, even when the rattle of someone’s last breaths makes her want to puke. This is a war her people can’t afford to lose, and if that means she has to lose herself, well, she can deal.

Mermista walks through the halls of the Fright Zone, sword in hand and water rising ever higher, and death follows in her wake.

 

_ Sea Hawk _

When Bow sits down to have the conversation, he feels thoroughly unequipped for it. He doesn’t know Sea Hawk as well as Mermista does, and he’s not a diplomat like Glimmer is. But Mermista dove into the ocean the last time Bow brought it up, and Glimmer’s still angry that the warrior she’d always looked up to is “some shanty-singing, mustache-faced idiot.”

So it’s just Bow, and Sea Hawk, and a pile of string so Bow can make knots when he gets nervous and needs something to do with his hands. He’s not a princess, but right now he can be a friend.

“So! Sea Hawk. Buddy. I, uh, noticed that sometimes you turn into She-Ra--I mean, of course I noticed, She-Ra is eight feet tall, but, uh, I wanted to know if you had, you know, any strong opinions…”

“Why, as a matter of fact I do! First things first: I think I need a better place to put this sword. We keep losing it!”

“I mean, yeah, but that’s not what I was talking about. I meant if you, um… If you wanted us to start using ‘he’ to talk about She-Ra? Or if transforming has made you reevaluate, like, certain parts of your life that’s okay too, or if you want to pick out a gender-neutral pronoun…”

Bow trails off, because this is so awkward that maybe he wants to dive into the ocean himself, but because maybe a bit of humor will fix things he continues: “No reason She-Ra can’t be He-Ra, and also no reason Sea Hawk can’t be… She Hawk… either…”

No, the humor did not make it better. No siree. Sea Hawk lets out a long  _ hmm _ sound, stroking his mustache in contemplation, and Bow starts tying knots as he waits, trying to let Sea Hawk work through things at his own pace.

Sea Hawk  _ hmm _ s again, looks around until he spots his sword (which slid all the way to the other side of the ship, but at least it didn’t fall overboard again) and transforms, sitting back down as She-Ra this time. Without a mustache, he’s running his hands through the ends of his hair. He detransforms— okay, back to Sea Hawk— then retransforms into She-Ra again, and then… Bow starts to get a little dizzy watching him.

Finally, with one last  _ hmm _ , he sets the sword down, still in his She-Ra guise.

“Nope, I don’t feel any different! I mean, I do feel a little taller and stronger, obviously, but I don’t think it matters if I’m she or he or they or He-Ra or She-Ra or They-Ra. I’m always going to be just a lonely swashbuckler on the open sea.

“Though you did give me an idea,” Sea Hawk continues, leaning forward with a twinkle in his eye, “Sure, the names She-Ra’s been traditional for thousands of years, but that doesn’t mean I can’t put my own personal twist on it. What if I called myself Sea-Ra? No— Me-Ra!”

Bow laughs, and gets himself comfortable for what promises to be a long afternoon of serious punnery. Glimmer may be right in that someone smarter, stronger more sensible or more respectful could’ve found the sword, but he’s pretty sure no other She-Ra could ever be as fun.

 

_ Catra _

Glimmer isn’t used to winning, but it feels really, really good. They’ve driven the Horde to the very edges of their territory, they’re turning the tide of the war at long last, and it’s all thanks to She-Ra. She’d heard the stories about She-Ra’s power and strength, but what’s really made the difference is her cunning, a mastery of the kinds of strategy that Glimmer didn’t even know existed.

All this time, Glimmer really had been a kid playing tough. She didn’t know anything about war, not like She-Ra does. She-Ra uses words like “guerrilla” and “ambush” and “target their supply chain”. How to lead a team of commandos behind enemy lines to sabotage their equipment at night. How to bring princesses into the Alliance, cajoling and threatening by turns.

She-Ra is the answer to all of Bright Moon’s prayers, and Glimmer will follow her to the very ends of the earth if she has to. She only wants— it doesn’t have to be her, even though it should be, since she was the one who found She-Ra first, the one who’s been at her side all this time— she only wishes that She-Ra had someone to be vulnerable with. Someone to lean on through the difficult times.

She’s seen She-Ra detransformed before, even though She-Ra doesn’t like being in her mortal guise in public. Without the tiara and the cape, She-Ra looks smaller and sadder and impossibly alone.

It’s not like they aren’t friends, of a sort. They eat together and laugh at each other’s jokes. She-Ra will spend hours working through a new combat move with her, and she trusts Glimmer enough that Glimmer’s always the first one to hear her plans. But there’s still a wall between them, as if She-Ra can’t bear to let Glimmer get too close.

Sometimes when Glimmer goes up to the rooftop she’ll see She-Ra perched there at the edge, her wild hair streaming behind her in the wind and her face turned towards the Horde.

Glimmer hears voices raised at the table and guiltily tunes back in. Her mom and She-Ra don’t get along, especially since She-Ra ignores the Queen’s demands to keep Glimmer tucked safely away from the frontlines. 

_ I need her teleports _ , she’d said, and Glimmer had spent the rest of the day in a happy haze, finally useful at last. But now She-Ra and her mom are in conflict pretty much all the time, and it’s usually up to Glimmer to call for a snack break and spend the rest of the hour talking them down.

“Mom, General She-Ra,” she says, because her mom likes to be called mom and She-Ra likes to be called General, “Both of you have good points, but—”

“No! I’ve let this farce of a debate go on long enough,” snarls her mother, wings puffed out in fury, “I am the Queen, and my word shall be obeyed.”

She-Ra goes really, really quiet. Glimmer’s mom’s feathers slowly settle back into place, thinking that She-Ra’s been chastened like the child she looks like when she’s not eight feet tall, but Glimmer knows that something’s gone very wrong. She reaches out, but her hand never makes it to She-Ra’s arm.

She-Ra stands, almost toppling her chair, and all Glimmer feels is the barest brush of her tail.

“You think you’re my Queen,” She-Ra says. It’s a statement, not a question, spoken softer than a murmur yet clear enough to be heard all the way around the room. “You think you’re in charge. You think you get to own me.”

She starts to pace her way around the table, a low, predatory stalk that makes everyone there watch her with an almost instinctive wariness.

“I’m the one beating the Horde back to their borders! I’m the one winning the war when you’re too scared to even leave your castle.”

Glimmer might be holding her breath. She has to say something, break this terrible tension somehow, but she’s just as scared of breaking the spell She-Ra’s velvet voice and glittering eyes cast upon her audience as she is of what She-Ra might say next.

“I’m the one giving you your freedom, and it would be just as easy for me to take it away.”

She-Ra stops behind Glimmer’s dad’s chair. Runs a hand along the back. Sits down, easy as you please, and smirks at the gasp of shock that rises from the room.

“You know what, Angella? I’m starting to think that you should be the one calling me Queen.”

 

_ Swift Wind _

Bow and Glimmer are so surprised by the giant talking horse (how does his mouth even move to make human words?) that it takes them more than a while to realize what he’s actually said.

“Wait, you’re She-Ra?”

“Yes, I’ve mentioned it at least five times now.”

“But— you’re—”

Swift Wind neighs in frustration and picks up a sword from the grass with his teeth. Unearthly light surrounds him, his mane growing longer as red skirts blink into existence above his hooves. A golden tiara frames his face,the sides extending all the way down his very long jaw.

“Bet you weren’t expecting that, were you?”

The sound comes from above. Glimmer and Bow look to the sky and see two Horde soldiers perched up there on a branch. She blinks up without a thought, pink energy already gathering at her fingertips, and Swift Wind leaps up and nudges her aside.

“Really?” she yells, blinking back next to Bow so he can catch her and break her fall, “I can take a talking horse being She-Ra—”

“You can take a talking horse being She-Ra?”

“--but working with the Horde? That’s too much for me!”

“The Horde’s old news,” scoffs the cat-faced one, “Only ones we’re working for now are ourselves.”

“Swift Wind taught us everything. We left the Horde, and now we’re fighting together for the, uh..” the blonde one pauses, clearly quoting something, “The liberation of the underclass from their oppressors’ yoke. That means Horde soldiers. And all horses.”

“I’m usually not a fan of the monarchy,” continues She-Ra/Swift Wind/the horse, “But as they say, the enemy of my enemy is my temporary ally. I propose we form a coalition, and let the Horde tremble at our collective solidarity! What say you?”

This has to be a dream, It cannot be real. But no matter how hard Glimmer pinches herself, she’s still not waking up.

“Alright,” she says, because she really can’t say anything else, “Welcome to the Princess Alliance.”

 

_ Mara _

Nobody uses her name anymore. It’s just She-Ra, She-Ra, Administrator, Brave Knight, so many titles that plain Mara disappears into the background.

Sometimes she thinks that she will forget her own name someday, that she’ll become only She-Ra, a warrior without needs, without desires, without the hopes and fears she whispers to herself in the dark. She knows that’s what the people want of her. The part of She-Ra that is only a girl is only inconvenient.

She’s losing herself. She barely ever has a moment on her own, with her hair faded to brown instead of brilliant gold. It’s been so long since she was allowed to put down She-Ra’s placid mask of perfection, and she can’t quite remember the last time she didn’t resent the sight of that sword.

Razz would remember. Mara never feels more like herself than she does when she’s with Razz, picking flowers by the riverside and trying to figure out how to make stew. But light Hope says that She-Ra cannot favor any one princess above the others, and besides she ought to be strong enough to not need attachments in the first place…

So she walks alone and eats alone and sleeps alone, and beneath She-Ra’s perfect conduct she wishes for it to be She-Ra and not Mara who slowly disappears.

 

**Author's Note:**

> \- I imagine that Glimmer's double life is a little bit like Usagi's from Sailor Moon.  
> \- Mermista in this AU gets the sword after the Horde comes to the Sea Gate. Her life is a little darker than canon is.  
> \- I wanted to work in "It's-a time for Me-Ra to Flee-Ra!" but couldn't find a place for it.  
> \- Catra doesn't actually want to be Queen, but she has some issues with authority she needs to work out. Her identity stuff is complicated. One time Adora called her Catra on the battlefield and instead of letting Glimmer know the truth she just told her that "Catra" was a slur.  
> \- Catra's praxis can best be described as "ANARCHY AND FLAME." The universe where everything works out the best for these two girls is the one where She-Ra is a horse, who knew?  
> \- Poor Mara.
> 
> I don't use [my tumblr](heartsinhay.tumblr.com) very much anymore, but I'm on the [She-Ra dreamwidth community!](https://thehonorofgrayskull.dreamwidth.org/) I love AUs & would honestly continue any one of these if I knew where to go next with them, so... Ideas?


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